Giant Panda is one of the rarest animal in the world. They are one of the several bears who lived until now, for example, Polar Bear , Grizzly Bear and even tiger . However Giant Panda is the only bear who are vegetarian. They are well known by their black & white appearance with the fluffy fur. Now the Giant Panda could only be found in Asia. Giant Panda Classification
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Mammalia
Order
Carnivora
Family
Ursidae
Genus
Ursidae
Species
A. melanoleuca
Diagram of Panda : Labelled by Chirs Cheng
Habitats of Panda Giant pandas are known as the “China Treasures” as giant pandas can only be found in China with the typical white face with black eye-patches and black ears. The giant panda was first appeared on earth about 2 to 3 million years ago. The habitat of all animals is very important and most of them are depending on food resources. Giant Panda live in forests with bamboo in the high mountains of western China.
Most of the giant panda lives in high mountains areas and has to be about 8,500 to 11,500 feet above sea level. Bamboo is known as the main food resources and shelter for them to live in. As Giant Panda is listed in the endangered species list, they could only be found in mountains in China and nowhere else. Most of them live between the Qinling and Minshan Mountains.
Long time ago Giant panda spread around the southern and eastern China and Myanmar and northern Vietnam. However, the rapid increase of human populations and development, giant panda had decreased and lived in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu mountain forest. Giant pandas are listed in the endangered species list because the habitat and the food resources are cut down. It is now one of the rarest animals in the world; they are solitary animals where they would live alone in the bamboo forests.
The habitat of giant panda has to be cool, wet, cloudy mountain forest with loads of foot resources for them, they were once lived in lowland areas long time ago, but human development had quickly force them to move and move giant pandas to the forest with huge amount of food resources for them.
Bamboo is one of the main food resources, bamboo is a type of grass, and however it grows as tall as trees. In order to find food themselves and climb up the bamboo trees, Giant panda front paws are specially adapted to hold on the bamboo and climb up the trees with its massive body size and weights. On each of Giant Panda’s palm, there is a bone looks like a thumb. When the panda grab on the bamboo, the five fingers wrap around the bamboo and the bone, which is also known as the thumb moves forward to make sure the bamboo is tightly held. They will sit upright while eating to use their paws to hold on the bamboo tightly. The size of a normal giant panda is between two and three and about six feet long. Males are tend to get large than females, they weight about 250 pounds and female is about 200 pounds. One of the main differences between Giant Panda and bear is that Giant Panda have a “cats eyes”, their pupils are vertical slits, unlike the bear who have round pupils. Structural Adaptation Two Teeth and fur
In order to disgust and eat 3,500 stalks of bamboos a day, Giant panda has very large teeth, strong jaws and huge cheek muscles in order to eat and chew the bamboo. They have large molars for crushing the food and sharp teeth to cut and bite through the bamboo. Normally one fully grown Giant Panda have 42 teeth. Giant panda live in the high mountains and the extreme cold weather in winter; Giants Pandas have very, oily, thick, wooly fur with waterproof that will keep them warm during the cold weather in the high mountains. There are two types of fur, one of them is long and thick and the shorter one is stay under the long and thick fur.
Behavioral Adaptation one Communication
Group of Giant Panda : Retrieved http://www.tourtibet.com/UpFiles/Article/hengduan%20range/wildlife/giant_panda/giant_panda_06.jpg
Giant pandas mostly live themselves. They are shy, solitary animals. They live in the mountains themselves, some could even last for their entire life. However some small group of Giant panda will gather together and share a feeding territory, but they still live alone and only meet when breeding. Although Giant panda normally live by themselves, they do know how to communicate with each other by using scent marks, calls and meetings, they do not roar like other bears, however they can make 11 different calls, and four of them are use for mating.
Behavioral Adaptation two Able to live by themselves for more food
A lot of the animals hibernate during winter to avoid the cold weather, Giant pandas do not hibernate. The reason they do not hibernate is because they are adapted to the facts that their food is available all year long and bamboo do not have enough nourishment to keep them through the cold weather. During winter, Giant Panda will go to lower altitudes to get warmer and find a shelter in hollow trees.
The reproductive rate of Giant Panda is very show, they generally mate during spring. The male will attract the female by using calls and odors. Afterwards the mating, the Female will give birth in about 95 to 160 days. They dig in the ground and born one or two cubs, however normally only one can survive. When the Giant panda baby is born, they are very small and white. They are blind and cannot move themselves. They weight about the size of an apple. Panda baby will need about six weeks to open their eyes and starting to eat bamboo at 6 months. Afterwards their mother will leave them behind and the Giant panda will live by themselves. The reproductive rate is very slow which leads to the decrease of the Giant Panda population, however living themselves could be able to have more food which makes them do not need to hibernate during winter as they do not share the same resources with others.
Physiological adaption one Female Giant Panda produces milk when pregnant
Photos from http://www.bizaims.com/files/Giant_Panda.jpg
Normally when female giant panda gives birth, they will have two babies; however the female giant panda will abandoned one and left it alone. Then the lucky one will survive and live with its mother for the next few years. Newborn panda are very tiny and have no survival skills. They could not eat bamboo yet due to the size and power. They are very similar to human as female panda will breast feed the baby. Same as human female, after the baby is born, they will be able to feed their own child.
Fossil Animal
Future Animal
Giant Panda
Ailuropoda melanoleuca
Giant Panda Classification
Habitats of PandaMost of the giant panda lives in high mountains areas and has to be about 8,500 to 11,500 feet above sea level. Bamboo is known as the main food resources and shelter for them to live in. As Giant Panda is listed in the endangered species list, they could only be found in mountains in China and nowhere else. Most of them live between the Qinling and Minshan Mountains.
Long time ago Giant panda spread around the southern and eastern China and Myanmar and northern Vietnam. However, the rapid increase of human populations and development, giant panda had decreased and lived in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu mountain forest. Giant pandas are listed in the endangered species list because the habitat and the food resources are cut down. It is now one of the rarest animals in the world; they are solitary animals where they would live alone in the bamboo forests.
The habitat of giant panda has to be cool, wet, cloudy mountain forest with loads of foot resources for them, they were once lived in lowland areas long time ago, but human development had quickly force them to move and move giant pandas to the forest with huge amount of food resources for them.
Source from WWF global: http://assets.panda.org/img/panda_distribution_map2004_232296.gif
Structural Adaptation One
Strong palm and sharp eyes
Structural Adaptation Two
Teeth and fur
Behavioral Adaptation one
Communication
Behavioral Adaptation two
Able to live by themselves for more food
The reproductive rate of Giant Panda is very show, they generally mate during spring. The male will attract the female by using calls and odors. Afterwards the mating, the Female will give birth in about 95 to 160 days. They dig in the ground and born one or two cubs, however normally only one can survive. When the Giant panda baby is born, they are very small and white. They are blind and cannot move themselves. They weight about the size of an apple. Panda baby will need about six weeks to open their eyes and starting to eat bamboo at 6 months. Afterwards their mother will leave them behind and the Giant panda will live by themselves. The reproductive rate is very slow which leads to the decrease of the Giant Panda population, however living themselves could be able to have more food which makes them do not need to hibernate during winter as they do not share the same resources with others.
Physiological adaption one
Female Giant Panda produces milk when pregnant
Normally when female giant panda gives birth, they will have two babies; however the female giant panda will abandoned one and left it alone. Then the lucky one will survive and live with its mother for the next few years. Newborn panda are very tiny and have no survival skills. They could not eat bamboo yet due to the size and power. They are very similar to human as female panda will breast feed the baby. Same as human female, after the baby is born, they will be able to feed their own child.
Referencing
l San Diego Zoo. (2010). Zoological Society of San Diego. Retrieved July 11, 2010, from http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-giant_panda.html
l Sydenham, S. & Thomas. (2010). Kid cyber. Retrieved July 12, 2010, from http://www.kidcyber.com.au/topics/panda.htm
l Enchanted Learning. (2010). Retrieved July 12, 2010, from http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/mammals/panda/
l G.Ellis. (2010). Glossopedia: Globio. Retrieved July 14, 2010, from http://www.globio.org/glossopedia/article.aspx?art_id=1